Unknown Realm Goes Full 8-Bit For Commodore 64 And PC

Unknown Realm: The Siege Perilous is a single player medieval fantasy RPG raising funds over on Kickstarter. Unlike many retro-styled Kickstarter projects, Stirring Dragon Games wasn’t satisfied with just achieving a classic look. They wanted to create a true 8-bit game.

“We believe that in order to capture the magic of the classic 8-bit RPG we had to return to the same constraints under which they were born.”

In order to restrict themselves exclusively to 8-bit they developed Unknown Realm on the Commodore 64. Placing such drastic limits on what the system could handle forced the team to be more creative during development.

“Designing in 8-bit forces us to focus exclusively on creating fun gameplay rather than non-essential features.”

The result was an open world full of secret locations, reactive landscapes, traveling NPCs, and quirky mini-games. Despite aiming for low-fidelity charm, Unknown Realm also dabbles with a few modern sensibilities. Event-triggered cut-scenes, auto-mapping, and an in-game journal improve the gameplay of the otherwise completely classic experience.

Getting The Goodies

Of course, any 8-bit campaign worth its salt wouldn’t be caught dead without an impressive list of physical rewards. Beginning with a commemorative bookmark and working up to the custom C64 game cartridge, there is a little something for collectors of every level. If, for some reason, you’re not nerd enough to have a Commodore 64 still kicking around, the game is also being developed for Windows and Mac.

The campaign is already well on its way towards its $65,536 funding goal. Boasting 16Mbits of content, Unknown Realm is already the largest 8-bit RPG to ever be made on a cartridge, according to its developers. If you’ve been yearning for the golden days of RPGs this is definitely a project worth looking into.

Joanna Mueller is a lifelong gamer who used to insist on having the Super Mario Bros manual read to her as a bedtime story. Now she's reading Minecraft books to her own kiddo while finally making use of her degree to write about games.

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